Valencia MotoGP Practice Results: Quartararo top, Rossi falls twice!

Fabio Quartararo assumed his now customary position at the head of the Friday timesheets in Spain as the final round of the 2019 MotoGP World Championship got underway in Valencia, while Valentino Rossi endured a torrid day with two tumbles.

The dominant performer over a single lap during the second half of the 2019 season, Quartararo was once again in fine form on the Petronas SRT Yamaha to stop the clocks with a 1m 30.725secs best.

Having been quickest in FP1 too, Quartararo’s rapid final flyer in FP2 was enough to displace Yamaha counterpart and Malaysian MotoGP winner Maverick Vinales from the top of the timesheets.

However, on the other side of the factory Yamaha garage, it was a disastrous day for Rossi as a fall in both FP1 and FP2 compounded a day in which he was off the pace. With the tumble in FP2 losing him more than 20mins of track time, Rossi finds himself down in a provisional 14th – a second slower than Quartararo.

Resisting the urge to put in a soft tyre flyer at the end of either FP1 and FP2, Marc Marquez was still a threat in third overall on the Honda, while Jack Miller was the best-placed Ducati man in fourth place on the satellite Pramac machine.

Franco Morbidelli rounded out the top five, heading off the two Suzukis of Alex Rins and Joan Mir, while Aleix Espargaro continued Aprilia’s strong run to the end of the season with eighth.

Andrea Dovizioso recovered from an oil leak on his Ducati to sneak into the top ten in ninth, once again out-pacing the struggling Danilo Petrucci in 12th position.

As rumours swirl about their respective futures in light of Jorge Lorenzo’s shock retirement call on Friday, Johann Zarco was quicker than Cal Crutchlow in 10th and 11th respectively, though both were clear of the Spaniard they are hoping to replace in 16th.

Elsewhere, KTM were off the pace with Pol Espargaro its leading representative down in 17th place ahead of Mika Kallio in 20th, Hafizh Syahrin in 22nd and Iker Lecuona – making his MotoGP debut this weekend ahead of his full-time move in 2020 – bringing up the rear as he gets to grips with the RC16.

2019 Valencia MotoGP Free Practice Results [Combined FP1 + FP2]